David Mantell

Two more familiar British names on a French poster - Johnny Saint and Zolly Boscik Actually, everyone in that tag match was on ITV at one point or another 1970-1978. This was 1980 and It says "All the Stars of TF1" on it, so maybe TF1 was still broadcasting the odd episode by this point, about eight years before New Catch.

Rather nice little piece from the INA including promo from mask-era Ange Blanc. Roland Barthes on a chat show and plenty of action. Unfortunately it goes a bit haywire near the end and declares that everything went downhill from the 70s until Marc Mercier revived the FFCP in 2006- illustrated by footage of John Cena !!! Promotion al consideration paid for by MM - or was it by Vince McMahon?

Solitary Kamikazes were popping up on TV during the in between years like the one teaming with Der Henker in 1971 on the previous page against Jacky Corne and Gilbert LeDuc. We still don't know who the French Kamikazes were and even if Modesto was one, that still leaves the other. It's possible that some time in the late 60s, Modesto and "Benny" invested in some nicer gear and masks then hopped in the car and drove northwards across the Pyrenees hoping to make money and TV Stardom in the land of food, wine and an only slightly less oppressive military dictator (De Gaulle Vs Franco)

What channel were these? If they were channel 1, perhaps the INA only bothered to record colour bouts on channel 2. Otherwise we should have several bout from 1975-1977 in B/w but with a "Video-type motion" interlaced picture with no sign of film-related issues. One possibility is that the INA could not be bothered to invest much in the soon to be redundant 819 line video technology (and VHF signal) on which Channel 1 ran. Another is that by 1975, possibly earlier, promoters simply wanted all, or as many as possible , of their bouts in colour so were avoiding channel 1 like the plague. Which leads back to the question - what channel were these on?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BritishWrestlingRemembered/permalink/8717283868309545/ Highlights of McManus Vs Pallo 1960s. Sadly someone decided to add music which was in copyright so half the soundtrack is missing. This, Thompson Vs StClair, the bits of Kaye Vs Zapata 1969 and Starr Vs Capello 1964 from The Final Bell 1988 and about 2 secs of Kellet Vs Hussey from 1967 in The Wrestler (camera converted from a shop window TV and spliced into the documentary makers'own footage of said bout) are the only pre-1970 ITV footage in wide circulation - unless people are prepared to share some earlier bouts featuring Ernie Riley etc mentioned elsewhere on this thread.

Firmin, the sixties' answer to Paul Butard the Butler

Looks like the French had the same business model as the British, intensive touring rather than big individual houses.

A dream clean match for early 60s Catch Francais - but taking place on the other side of the Pyrenees down in Madrid, Spain. Eleven years before the CIC's closure and one year before it cut back to just Madrid and Barcelona, leaving Southern Spain and Portugal "Dark" just as Italy went Dark too. (The North of Spain would be fought over by French and German promoters up to he late 80s before Vince properly reactivated Spain and Italy- but left Greece to wither and die). It's a cinema newsreel snippet, mainly focussing on one particular female fan. Action shown is mainly high spottd, fortunately including two of Gilbert's famous toupees ( one escape from headscissors and one headscissor throw. Also a brief Manchette battle with Ange doing a nifty scissor chop. Would love to see this bout in full, I wonder if the raw footage is out there.

Kendo Nagasaki has recently been in action in Croydon. At age 83, natch

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1188513425037928/posts/1617675022121764/ I've sent Lilia a link to this thread. Perhaps we can help.

Okay here goes. No sign of any previous review on here. The man in the mask meets the man with the belt. Not too clear at the start of this was a title match - if so there would be a bit more pomp and ceremony, see Jean Ferre's title win over Franz Van Buyten, or the end of Gilbert Vs Mychel. This starts with a Gilbert promo but don't get too excited, it's a down to Earth Bon getting buttonholed on his way into the ring, hecsays he thinks he has what it takes to win. We shall see. Gilbert is a lot spryer than he seemed in the Mychel bout. He undoes wrist levers turning this way and that. He does get caught in an overhead double wristlock and rolls between mat and standing, looking for an escape. Eventually he does the very French Scisseax Volees takedown but Henker easily escapes. Henker actually has quite a style of his own, blocking throws and attempts at holds quite a lot, it is hard work for Le Duc to get a rear chancery snapmares on him, Henker arrests the momentum pushing down hard on his knee. He prevents Gilbert escaping a straight arm scissor by moving one foot further down LeDuc's chest. LecDuc does his toupee to escape the hold. In the past I have used the term toupee to refer purely to the Édouard Carpentier crossed headscissor version. I stand corrected. That is Gilbert's next move and he does pull it off twice despite Henker grasping his knees. Henker slides this down into an unlocked figure 4 then into the sitting leglock before finally dumping the science and getting out the Mechant style of Henry Penny (sorry) with some closed fist punches to get the crowd angry. Gilbert gets an Indian Deathlock. Agrees stalemate. Gilbert accidentally knocks over the ref while making his point. He gets an Avertisement but takes it in his stride. Henker gets another top double wristlock, illegal throttle and legal pressure points hold. Glbert gets more like the Mychel bout now. Side healocks etc. Hener gets in a slam which Gilbert sells heavily. Twelve minutes from the end Gilbert goes for the mask but the ref saves it. Henker lands hard from an Irish whip and Gilbert follows in with an armlock.securedcwith an armscissors. Henker replies with a headscissors. LecDuc twice tries his corkscrew toupee escape but to no avail, Henker turns the scissors over and applies pressure. Third time, he pulls his head out. He tries the mask but L'Arbitre will have none of it. Henker gets back his armlock. He puts his foot on Le Duc 's head to secure the arm. He gets a slam in then goes back to the arm. Le Duc overpowes with an armlock of his own into a hiptoss. Henker holds on and gets in a slam. LeDuc gets another hiptoss. Henker throws off a LeDud headscissor like a Brit. Henker gets two forearms, an overhead press slam and drop. He goes a bit wild pulling hair and L'Arbitre tells him off. Henker gets a 2 count and Manchettes Gilbert around. Le Duc retaliates and it becomes what Kent Walton would decry as a Forearm Smashing Contest.(Cornette is no fan of these either, although these two do at least sell the effects, falling down from the blows. Gilbert gets a cross press and pinto win the belt and gets the belt put on him. No flowers so probably not a championship match. No attempt is made to get the defeated Henker to unmask, he just mills around with other officials. He'll live to fight another day, complete with his Cagoule. Yes, I like this and I'm getting into LeDuc although I guess these are his later years.

I think he's entirely on the money about how rotten the current state of US wrestling is, and I'd rather experience the current scene through the safety filter of listening to him and Brian talk about it than actually directly inflict WWE or AEW on myself by watching them, but that's another discussion for another thread.

A quite famous bout taped 1973, screened 1974, mainly famous for the pre-match angle where Street flicks a stray piece of glitter at McMichael who replies by pulling Street 's gown to pieces, which has been conveniently loaded with Xmas tinsel and sequins especially to cause them to spill everywhere over the ring and ringside where elderly fans take to wearing pieces of the costume. Ever since The Final Bell, this bout - especially the pre-match antics, has been a favourite of documentary makers not just for wrestling but for wider social history such as the I Love The Seventies series. The angle is also widely cited - alongside McMichael's mock-grumpy banter with Vic Faulkner (and later Owen Hart) as being the case for labelling Mick McMichael a "comedy wrestler" when most of the time he was anything but. It's also one of only three Street ITV matches in wide circulation along with the late night 1974 match against Les Kellet's son Dave Barrie and the 1972 heel Vs heel surprise technical classic against Jim Breaks. In fact, the only other pre-North America Street bouts in circulation are the 1960s fading colour 8mm fancam of the Hells Angels Vs Alan Dennison & Sid Cooper, early 80s CrappyCam against Axel Dieter in (IIRC) Hamburg 1981 and teaming with Steve Kelly to lose to the Pallos in the main event of their Great Yarmouth Hippodrome home video releases cum rejected TV pilot that same year. Six bouts for about 25 years of Ada's career. Needless to say, Street is aggrieved by the incident which gets a massive Lex And Barry Beat Tully And Arn For The Belts @ Clash 1 pop. The result is something of a wild brawl which @ohtani's jacket will love but both Kent Walton and myself found disappointing considering both men's technical skills (Kent often praised Mick's purist ability and as for Adrian, look no further than the Breaks bout.) There are however three great scientific pinfalls, they stick out like sore thumbs but taken in isolation they are a joy, especially Adrian's opening legdive and turnover into folding press with bridge, an absolute masterpiece. After McMichael equalises with a neat double legdive and folding press, Street takes it home with a magnificent middle rope flying bodypress. Kent is gushing with praise for both Street falls, tinged with "why can't we see more of this from him?". To be fair to Kent, in 1973 even a celeb like him did not have the option of dialling up the Breaks match with just a few clicks of the remote control. Mind you, in those days most TVs didn't even have a remote control. P.S. I was going to review McMichael Vs the other Hells Angel Bobby Barnes as a follow up.but I already have on page 38. Notice McMichael is totally no nonsense in that bout and does a lot more technical work, despite the two opponents' similar gimmicks.

Not as fun as it was to grow up in this territory and live with it on TV and live! This is the wrestling that made me a fan.

Do we know if Modesto and/or "Benny" were either/both of the two French Kamikazes? The Spanish version of the gimmick had a very different look to it from the French version, although they both did the crouching down in the corner thing: The next stage on from the above tag match was a Der Henker versus Gilbert LeDuc singles match which I intend to do on here ASAP. Probably that plus the Mychel match are the ones I would send to Jim and Brian as specimens (they might find the Mychel match a bit "dry" as they would put it.) Then again maybe there's a load of 50s/60s G Le D matches I need to check out. So you are in contact with Jim and Brian? Please do post on this thread from 2023 - I'd love to hear Jim's thoughts on this. (If anyone on here wants to chip in on that last subject, please do so on that thread, not on this one! Thank you.)

Gilbert got a mention on Jim Cornette's show this weekend. He's up for the WON HOF as you mentioned. (British fans please note, Steve Grey is also nominated.) Jim had never heard of him. "Who TF is Gilbert Le Duc?". Brian Last mentioned Jos LeDuc. Event occurs at 36m15sec. If I've got this right, it should go there automatically. Feedback to Jim and Brian can be provided on this form. (Keep it friendly.) https://www.jimcornette.com/contact-us.html

With all this talk of both Der Henker and Gilbert LeDuc, I fancy watching this 1971 bout. It doesn't seem to have been reviewed before so why not now? Der Henker has help from one of the Kamikazes to keep safe against the man he TKOd months earlier, looking for revenge. Gilbert hasn't the option to get all serious like in the Mychel bout. A masked "German" and a masked "Japanese". Reminds me of the Spoiler (Drew McDonald) and King Kendo (Bill Clarke) on ITV in 1987. When a drum majorette comes out.I half expect Big Daddy to be in tow until I remember this is France 1971. (These majorettes are a slightly slinkier more post pubescent bunch than Daddy's marching girlies, swinging their long legs all over the place.) They play the same trumpet tune as the majorettes at one or two early 80s Daddy matches. LeDuc is down in ar armbars but flying scissors Henker and tags a vengeful Corne. Henker doesn't fancy it and tags Kamikaze. He remembers what he did. Nice bit of storyline there from a territory not known for such things. Les Bons tag in and out on Kamikaze and Henker gets a good solid wristlock on LeDuc - Henker is not bothered by LeDuc for all his legend. LeDuc's lengthy selling reminds me a lot of the Mychel match. Jacky returns but Henker takes him down then hands him over to Kamikaze. Le Duc tries out his toupees on Henker. Corne bodyscissors Kami a fair bit. Kami is actually a pretty decent technical wrestler who can do folding presses and cartwheels with the best of 'em. Gilbert is FIP against the masked men before coming back against both together with a scissor/bulldog combination and gets the opening fall from Kamikaze. The masked men regain control. Henker has a great press slam. dropping Le Duc stomach first onto one knee. Henker strikes Gilbert with the same piledriver he injured Corne with before. Gilbert is carted away, an enraged Corner goes Henker but soon the masked men are back in charge. Henker gets THAT SAME PILEDRIVER on Corne but he is up at eight this time. A second one gets a 9 count and a third gets a KNOCKOUT. But wait , there are still 10 mins of the YouTube video left. Henker does a Hulk and poses in the ring. HENKER MUST POSE! Kamikaze simpers round him like Brutus Beefcake . For some reason, Corne is allowed to fight on for the deciding fall. LevDuc comes back and strikes the hot tag a minutes later, hammers on both and leglocks Henker but then goes wild and attacks the referee getting an Avertisement. It gets back down to Corne armlocking Henker. Henker is trapped in the ropes while Le Duc pins Kamikaze to make it a 2-1 win. Kami tries an after bell attack but gets nothing from it.

Is that ALL you have to say about this absolute MASTERPIECE? This is a match with the one missing ingredient of Gilbert LeDuc Vs Bert Mychel - speed. From the start they are moving for position in Roberts ' headlock which Martin makes a straight arm and Roberts rolls out. son the situation is reversed with Martin rolling out of Roberts' armbars. They both go for folding presses with Pete cartwheeling out. Round 2 and Martin kips out of a headscissor. He gets Roberts in an interesting leglock, scissoring an ankle while gripping under the knee. Roberts undresses it my pulling out one atm and folding it into a double wristlock into hammerlock into overhead wristlock, adapting as Martin changed position. He started to regain the double wristlock but Martin reversed and dropped a leg on it. Martin tried an Irish whip but Pete landed on his feet. Martin got a front chancery, Roberts reversed it into a headlock but too near the ropes. Martin slipped out of a standing side headlock, folded Pete's legs into a Gotch toehold, turned the whole package over and dropped his weight on it. The final secs saw Roberts use a front chancery to fend off legdives from Martin. The Third saw Cas get that leg and bend it on his knee. Pete snared a free arm , hammerlocked the other and wrenched. More arm weakeners and a throw. He tries for a folding press but Cas spins himout. Cas downed Pete with a chancery and his special standing cross scissor weakener. Roberts got a sidehealock but Cas unwrapped the arm and tried a double knee then folding press but Pete rolled away. Roberts gets a leg plus face bar, Cas turns himself over, but Roberts retained the ankle scissor. He eventually released and Martin was setting up victory roll when the bell went. Halfway through. Cas started round 4'with a rear waist lock but Pete scrambled out. He got a leg from behind and lifted it to bash down the knee but Martin sprang upright. He went from standing full nelson to rear wristlock but Roberts got an arm and built it into a front chancery. Cas threw him but Roberts went over on one hand into upright and caught Martin with a backslide for a 2 count. He then got a hammerlock into further nelson on the mat but Martin bridged then kipped up into a test of strength, getting Roberts on his shoulders briefly. Roberts powered up and bodychecked free, hiptoosed and posted and slammed Martin, tried for the double knees twice. Martin snapmares and dropped an elbow on it. Roberts tried a piledriver but it wasn't vertical enough and went into the ropes. He next got a leglock but Martin got double arm s and a knee in for the start of a surfboard. Roberts stood up into a test of strength when the bell went. Round 5 and Cas powered Roberts down on his back from a top wristlock. Things kick off, Martin boots Roberts into the ropes but Roberts cartwheels back and goes for a sunset flip but Martin double ankles mashes him. Roberts snapmares into a cross press but Martin bridges up. Gets a wristlever and protects it against a snapmares and grapevine and even a flying headscissor attempt before converting to a leglock, Martin turns it over to force a stalemate. He gets a standing octopus, Roberts slowly but surely throws him for a five count. Martin goes for a rear waist lock but Pete takes him down into a headscissors. Martin turns it into the front kneeling position then gets his knees in to pull the scissor off and dive straight in for a side headlock! Roberts stands up in it, reverses it into a grovit, Martin throws him but again he goes over on one hand into a stand. Roberts chanceries and throws Martin but he cartwheels into upright. He gets a legdive and is about to step over into something when the bell goes- not the first time he has been cut short. Final round and Martin gets a long distance throw that keeps Roberts down until the seven count. Roberts went headlock into snapmares with a kneedrop on top for 4. A throw of his own also got 4, another got him headlocked, a knee off the ropes set up a backslide attempt for two, Martin gets a side head chancery, Roberts pushes him off the ropes, shoulders him but gets nothing for it. He tries another piledriver, better than the last, then gets double arms, but it hits the ropes. Martin snapmares and puts on his trademark standing cross scissor. Roberts grabs the calf muscle to block it but Martin falls forward to wrench on the scissor. Both backdrop each other. Roberts gets a sunset flip for 2 then a headscissor throw for six. Martin cartwheels out of a legdive and into one of his own, taking down Roberts and folding the legs underneath. He oddly puts himself in a headscissor (a blown spot?) then uncorks it with his feet. Roberts shoulder blocks, Martin gets a leg scissor. Roberts turns it over into a Gotch toehold but Cas rolls out. They have a two way side chancery and are still grappling on the mat when the bell goes. Absolutely perfect. Beautiful scientific nil nil draw. The crowd love it too and roar their appreciation.

The above recent British Heavyweight Championship title change with Mickey Long beating Oliver Grey was in Gravesend. Rumble also has (or has just had) a house show there.

It seems to have actually happened in 1969: S 22/3/69, Trowell (taped 18/3/69) Mick McManus (RSF) v Ted Heath Dory Dixon (W) v Steve Haggetty Bert Mychel (1) v Barry Douglas (1) *************************************************** In other news - SCROLL BACK UP to the 1991 Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett Vs Giant Haystacks and Johnny South match - it is now on YouTube!!!

Me recently on the French thread: Okay. Here it is. The crowd give Mychell a polite response and a mixture of cheers and jeers to Bruno (whose hair and beard are not yet blond.). Apparently he was previously on ITV in 1971 but I can't find any record of it on @JNLister's site. They shake hands. Bert works on escaping Bruno's armlocks including rollouts, a headscissor and a double cross of a test of strength, If anything Mychell is being more provocative, using a forearm to floor Bruno for a headlock.Bruno coverts it neatly to a hammerlock, Mychell tries to scissor but Bruno folds his legs up. However down on the mat, Bert upturns itt into a cross press. Bruno rolls over but it goes to the ropes. Bert has another armbars but Bruno converts it to top wristlock then a wristlever of his own. Bruno forearms Bert into the ropes then tries to hammerlock Jim round a rope, which gets him heat. He gets a headlock into cross buttock throw but Bert uncorks his head in gradual pulls a la Johnny Saint. Mychell gets Bruno with a foream as the bell rings then starts a wrist lever but ref Tony Mancelli stops it. Kent tells us Bert wrestled for Belgium at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, coming Fourth, turned pro 1966 and has represented Belgium internationally at Judo and GR. Round 2 and Bert gets a single leg Boston Crab which Bruno powers down to a toehold by Bert. Mychell gets the leg again, drops an elbow, stands back for a count, gets caught in a front chancery but breaks out to get the leg again then the other keg then a sit down splash. Bruno gets up and tries bodychecks. Mychell goes for a dropkick. He goes for the beard but the ref stops him, they shake hands. Bruno uses firearms to get counts. Bert is thrown from the ring. Bruno uses forearms and tries to hold down Bert but the bell goes. Round 3 starts with forearms and tests of strength. Bruno uses closed fists on the ropes and gets a public warning. Bert has Bruno in the ropes but Mancelli stops it. Bruno repeatedly flooring Bert with forearms. Bert gets a double arm but Bruno goes for the ropes. A Bert armbars takes Bruno over and Bert has an extra twist on just. Bruno gets headscissors, they roll in to the ropes. The bell goes but they brawl on. Round 4 -Bert gets a backbreaker and hammerlock on the mat. A snapmares and spinning foot follow up. Ellington gets a backslide for the only required fall. No, they didn't shake hand at the end heedless of all the fouls Elrington did to Mychell. This ain't France. An old school wrestler deals with a giant with some skill.

No. My new research has confirmed that this is definitely not correct and it's something that people often get wrong (Mercier gets it wrong in his book too). FFCP was started by Etienne Siry and Robert Lageat in 1950 and at first it was just a governing body for catch (a rival governing body to the one Paoli, Goldstein and others were working with). At that point there were still no promotional names. FFCP later became the name of the Siry/Lageat promotion. I'm not clear on the timeline after this, but I guess later Delaporte ended up with the FFCP name and then in 2006 Mercier bought it from him. Sounds like a "The NWA World title was set up in 1905" situation. What did DeGlane and Paoli set up, then?

Told you all so. Mercier vs Albert Sanniez 1978 isn't on @Matt D's list of videos for example. My guess is that INA, once they had opened up for biz in 1975 and imported two decades worth of overseas kinescopes and the one lucky surviving Jan '69 colour transmission tape, had to tape a certain amount of matches as a quota. Probably less many after the move to FR3 in 1985 with matches given a first screen in one area then getting passed round other FR3 regions to a non-synchronised schedule.

I've sung the praises of Benjamin Stone on here in the past. Here he truly gets put to the test. Nearly three decades ago. James Mason was a nervous young blond TBW when Simon Garfield interviewed him for his book. A year or so later he was World Middleweight champion for Rumble Promotions. Since then he's been a double crown British and European Heavyweight Champion, represented Britain in Michinoku Pro, TNA and WWE from whom he beat MVP in 2008. Stone comes in with a heel attitude and does at one point do a foul tangling a hammerlock in the ropes. Otherwise it's very much a technical match with some complex reversal sequences involving reversing Japanese strangle holds, including forming a surfboard . Despite Stone's attitude the two shake hands after the bout despite some needle therein. Very much like 60s/70s French Catch where Les Bons et Les Mechants showed similar interaction, often despite tactics which had just been usedin the ring. Good modern classic.

This seems to be my understanding of the chronology of Le Catch Sur La Télé: 1933 - FFCP set up by Raoul Paoli and Henri DeGlane 1944 - Paris is liberated and the Nazis TV transmitter at the Eiffel Tower is captured and used for the new ORTF TV service 1952 - Wrestling highlights start popping up as part of the sports sections of TV News. 1956 - The first proper standalone broadcasts begin. 1959 - Commentator Claude Darget is fired after breaking kayfabe on air, only to be reinstated after his colleagues threaten to go on strike. Unfortunately this established the idea of it being a point of freedom of speech and journalist integrity to take a cynical mocking tone to pro wrestling. 1961 ORTF TV chief Raymond Jamot, under pressure from sports minister Maurice Herzog, cancels TV wrestling but it is soon brought back after a public outcry. 1964 ORTF Channel 2 is launched and some wrestling bouts are transplanted to the new channel. Later in 1964 : ORTF becomes RTF 1967 : Channel 2 goes colour and so does any wrestling on it. Next earliest bout we know was on Channel 2 is a December 1967 hair Vs hair tag. 1969 January 25th - a rare surviving colour tape of Roger Delaporte and Andre Bollet Vs Marcel Montreal and Warnia Zarzecki escapes wiping, ending up at the INA (see below). Other bouts on Channel 2 from December 1967 to June 1974 only survive on B/W film but may contain chroma dots for future colour recovery. Channel One remains in black and white for several more years as do any wrestling bouts on it (see also below) 1972 December 31st, Channel 3 is launched as a network of regions but does not have any wrestling until 1984. 1975, January, RTF is abolished and the three TV channels become TF1, A(ntenne) 2 and FR3. 1975 later. The INA is established. It takes on board 18 years of Kinescopes 1956-1974, the one surviving colour videotape from 1969 and starts making off air recordings of wrestling shows going forward. 1975 September - TF1, up to this point still B/W, starts screening some colour shows, mostly repeats of old FR3. All wrestling from 1975-1976 is in colour labelledwhich suggests it was all broadcast on Antenne 2 at this point. 1977 - TF1 finally goes full colour. A couple of colour bouts are on TF1 1977-1979ish. but after this, all bouts until 1984 are on A2. 1979 An early incarnation of the IWSF opens in Montereau-Fault-Yonne 1979 also - Gerard Hervé, a Frenchman trained and wrestling in Mexico, moved back to his native country and make his TV debut. Within a year, he renames himself Flesh Gordon and starts making a name for himself as Walter Bordes's last great tag partner. 1984 - La Derniere Manchette appears on FR3. 1984/1985 WWF starts screening on Canal + 1985 Summer, wrestling is moved from Antenna 2 to FR3, transmission is staggered across the network. 1987 TF1 is privatised 1987 circa November, Catch on FR3 quietly comes to an end. 1988 An initial run of New Catch is screened on TF1. The end of this run is the end, for the time being, of French wrestling on analogue terrestrial TV after 32+years and the equivalent of the Final Bell on ITV in the UK. 1989 February - New Catch resumes on Eurosport, available across Europe on Astra. 1989 later, Delaporte retires from promoting. 1991 - A further run of New Catch on TF1 Early 1990s, end of New Catch. Shortly thereafter, Bernard Van Damme's Eurostars promotion gets a TV show somewhere, some how which goes on TV and stays into the 2000s. 2006 Marc Mercier revives the FFCP with Delaporte as adviser. 2007 a WWF boom in France produces an upswing in attendance for all French promotions including WS and FFCP 2009 Delaporte dies. 2012 IWSF renamed Wrestling Stars 2024 Marc Mercier retires from wrestling and the FFCP.